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Sunday, February 28, 2016

Trump: televangelist

Much has been made of "evangelicals" who support Donald Trump. Trump supporters are demographically diverse. They include blue-collar workers, Stormfront folk, disaffected LewRockwell.com folk, &c. But what about the evangelicals? To begin with, the category is fairly diffuse:

“Diverse group with differing priorities” indeed. I’m glad to see Chideya note that Evangelicals — especially in the South — are hardly a monolith. Unlike the Northeast, West, and parts of the Midwest, in the South there is no social stigma to labeling yourself an Evangelical, and in some communities non-Evangelicals are in a decided minority. That’s not to say, however, that the Evangelical movement here is culturally dominant. There is a significant gap between those who proudly declare themselves to be Christian and those who actually go to church or participate in church in any meaningful way. And amongst church-goers, there are wide variations in belief and approach. Denominations still matter down here.

But I'd like to make another point: It's not surprising that "evangelicals" who get their theology from Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar, Jesse Duplantis, John Hagee, Benny Hinn, T.D. Jakes, Joyce Meyer, Joel Osteen, Rod Parsley, Paula White et. might be Trump supporters. Trump is pretty interchangeable with the prosperity preachers who litter TBN. Glitzy, worldly, showbiz Christianity. If televangelists like that are your standard of comparison, then you'd feel right at home with Trump.